A well-researched, absorbing psychological study of white evangelicals.
A psychologist explores the mindset of modern white evangelicals in this nonfiction book.
“For many of us who grew up in the white evangelical subculture,” writes author Verhaagen, “we thought we were going one place, but we ended up somewhere else.” Like millions of Americans who grew up in evangelical communities but have subsequently become disaffected with religion, Verhaagen found that the love-your-neighbor message he was taught in Sunday school was actually “part of a subculture that appeared self-centered, angry, and unattractive.” Now a psychologist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chapel Hill, the author combines scholarly insights with his insider’s perspective as one “who has been soaking in evangelicalism for over forty years.” While the last decade has seen a bevy of books on white evangelicalism by historians and sociologists, this one offers an additional layer to the literature by incorporating astute psychological insights. The heavily researched work has a 55-page bibliography and provides numerous interesting stats. For instance, within America’s conservative Christian subculture, there is a “higher than average” percentage of people with narcissistic personality disorder. This is connected to another trait among many evangelicals, a rigid mindset that implicitly tells itself, “I am already special, set apart, blessed, chosen—and I didn’t have to lift a finger to get here.” The social and political ramifications of these mindsets, as anyone who follows American history and contemporary life knows, have profound political and social implications. Verhaagen’s extensive research is combined with a rare sensitivity to the nuances of evangelicalism that criticizes but never stereotypes. The author of eight previous books, Verhaagen is a talented writer who strikes an impressive balance between scholarly research and an accessible writing style. Though admitting that many steadfast conservative evangelicals may dismiss his argument as “liberalism,” the author nevertheless seeks to educate those within the author’s former religious community. This particularly applies to issues of race (“church attendance,” he contends, “correlated with more—not less—racist attitudes”), as the book features a supplemental appendix that provides “Evidence of Systemic Racism.”
A well-researched, absorbing psychological study of white evangelicals.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1666710694
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Cascade Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.
A follow-on to the author’s garbled but popular 48 Laws of Power, promising that readers will learn how to win friends and influence people, to say nothing of outfoxing all those “toxic types” out in the world.
Greene (Mastery, 2012, etc.) begins with a big sell, averring that his book “is designed to immerse you in all aspects of human behavior and illuminate its root causes.” To gauge by this fat compendium, human behavior is mostly rotten, a presumption that fits with the author’s neo-Machiavellian program of self-validation and eventual strategic supremacy. The author works to formula: First, state a “law,” such as “confront your dark side” or “know your limits,” the latter of which seems pale compared to the Delphic oracle’s “nothing in excess.” Next, elaborate on that law with what might seem to be as plain as day: “Losing contact with reality, we make irrational decisions. That is why our success often does not last.” One imagines there might be other reasons for the evanescence of glory, but there you go. Finally, spin out a long tutelary yarn, seemingly the longer the better, to shore up the truism—in this case, the cometary rise and fall of one-time Disney CEO Michael Eisner, with the warning, “his fate could easily be yours, albeit most likely on a smaller scale,” which ranks right up there with the fortuneteller’s “I sense that someone you know has died" in orders of probability. It’s enough to inspire a new law: Beware of those who spend too much time telling you what you already know, even when it’s dressed up in fresh-sounding terms. “Continually mix the visceral with the analytic” is the language of a consultant’s report, more important-sounding than “go with your gut but use your head, too.”
The Stoics did much better with the much shorter Enchiridion.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-42814-5
Page Count: 580
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
